A guide to preparing and editing an article
 
The Quarterly Journal of Cooperation and Agriculture is a multi-discipline quarterly journal with open access that publishes original empirical research as well as novel evidence in the field of cooperation (with a focus on the agricultural sector). The main focus of this quarterly is on social and behavioral dimensions related to agricultural and rural cooperatives; Therefore, economic studies (articles) related to the field of cooperation are only considered based on the clear and significant contribution they can have in the relevant literature. The eloquence and way of writing these articles should be such that they are noticed by researchers in this field. All researches from different disciplines, both experimental and review, provided that they establish an academic (theoretical) connection with the field of practice, are welcomed in this quarterly. Some important topics in this quarterly (not all of them) are:
- Production and cooperation
- Operation and cooperation
- Processing and cooperation
- Supply and value chains in the structure of cooperatives
- Village, development, tourism and cooperation
- Marketing, trade, employment and cooperation
- Food security, food safety and cooperation
- Innovation, knowledge-based and institution-building within the framework of the cooperative sector
- Consumption and cooperation
- Legal issues in the cooperative sector
- Management in the cooperative sector
- Education, cooperation, voluntary action, responsibility, collective ownership, networking, independence and freedom of action, voluntary associations, etc. in the framework of cooperation
Important notices
1. The Quarterly Journal of Cooperation and Agriculture is subject to the rules of the Committee on Ethics in Publication (COPE) and follows the executive regulations of the Law on Prevention and Combating Fraud in Scientific Works; Therefore, it is important to comply with ethical principles in compiling articles and referencing principles, and in this quarterly, plagiarism is examined before submitting the article for refereeing.
2. In order for the editorial board, editor and specialized editors to ascertain the relationship of each article with the issues of interest of the quarterly magazine, it is necessary for the authors to refer to at least three of the articles published in this quarterly magazine in their article.
3. The article should be written in eloquent and fluent language and should be free of spelling mistakes. It should be noted that the insertion of semi-spaces (ctrl + shift + 2) is necessary for compound words (like them, as well as, in general, regional, unique, journals) in the entire text of the article (for example, read instead of read); Otherwise, the article will be returned to the corresponding author. In addition, it is necessary to observe the following editing and writing points in compiling articles: 1 All punctuation marks, including periods, commas, semicolons, year marks, colons, etc. It has been suitable.); 2) It is necessary to insert a space before opening and after closing parentheses and quotation marks; But the words inside them are written without spaces and attached to them (for example); 3) It is preferable to use (e) instead of (hi) in the text of articles (for example, efficient use); 4) The equivalent of unfamiliar, unknown or English words should only be presented as a footnote in the first reference; 5) In the quantitative report of values ​​and figures, avoid inserting a period (.) or a comma (,) instead of a comma (/) (for example, 3.2 [incorrect] and 2.3 [correct]); 6) To number titles or items related to a subject, a period must be used after the numbers (for example, 1.); 7) Footnotes are numbered separately on each page and their continuous numbering in the entire text should be avoided. Also, a dot (.) should be used after the number, and English words should begin with capital letters (for example, 1. Footnote). Also, it is necessary to subtitle Persian words from the right side and English words from the left side.
4. The acceptance certificate for refereed articles will be issued only after the final approval by the technical editor and editor; Therefore, the authors are obliged to make the corrections requested by them and refrain from repeatedly pursuing or protesting the result of the evaluation process.
5. In this quarterly magazine, only one article from the same authors is considered for review and sent to the jury; Therefore, in order to send articles with similar names or content, it is necessary to observe a minimum time interval of one month.
6. In order to save time and money, before submitting the article to the Cooperative and Agriculture Quarterly, it is appropriate for the authors to carefully read the authors' guide (provided in the following file) and pay attention to all the requirements contained in this guide.
7. Before submitting the article to the magazine, the responsible author must carefully check and finalize the names of the authors who contribute to the creation and editing of the article. Deleting or adding the names of the authors or changing their order after submitting the article to the quarterly journal will lead to the suspension of the article publication process. In case of necessity, the responsible author can submit the following items to the journal office to remove or add the name of the author(s), after obtaining written permission from the editor: 1) Written consent from all authors to remove and add the author (gan) or changing their order; and 2) providing a convincing reason for this action.

Type of article
The noteworthy articles in the cooperative and agriculture quarterly are as follows:
Research articles:
This category of articles includes action research, model testing, experimental and scientific research (quantitative, qualitative and mixed) using field data or studies with a practical focus.
case study:
They include research that is focused on describing or explaining a particular organization or system.
Review articles (literature review): include studies that are written with the aim of interpreting or criticizing existing literature in a specific scientific field.

format
All articles are compiled in two columns (in Word software versions 2003 or 2007) and according to the contents of Table 2. The text of the article is set on A4 paper (with top and bottom margins of 5 cm and left and right margins of 3.5 cm) and line spacing of 1 (single).

The length of the article
 It should consist of a maximum of 7000 to 8000 words (including all parts of the article, including the title, Persian and English abstracts, main text, figures, tables, appendices and sources).
Authors' information should send the following information in order in Farsi and English in a separate file along with the main text of the article to the quarterly system.
Name and surname, academic rank, educational department or field of study, name of faculty, name of university, name of province, name of country. Email address and contact number
For example, Ali Asadi, Professor, Department of Management and Development, Faculty of Economics and Agricultural Development, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. aasadi@ut.ac.ir and 09120000000
Ali Asadi, Prof., Department of Agricultural Management and Development, Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Development, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. aasadi@ut.ac.ir, 09120000000
Note 1: In this section, avoid the use of titles and indicators such as Mr., Mrs., Doctor, Engineer, Faculty Member, etc.
Note 2: In front of the name of the author who is in charge of the correspondence, the words "author in charge" should be inserted.
Note 3: The scientific levels and their English equivalents are as follows:
 
Assistant Professor BSc Expert Instructor.
Associate Professor PhD student Ph.D. Student Master's student MSc. Student
Professor Prof. Ph.D. MSc.

Figures and diagrams Figures and diagrams should be clear and legible and can be drawn in black and white or color. Each graph or figure should be numbered (for example, Figure 1) and referenced in the text of the article. Figures and diagrams should have a clear and expressive legend. All charts and figures are centered on the page. The source of each figure or diagram is indicated below according to the style of the quarterly magazine. Each diagram or figure is placed with a blank space of text before and after it. For in-text references, only the following two formats are used: 1) as shown in Figure (1)... and 2) the model has full reliability (Figure 1). It is necessary to specify the words of figures and diagrams along with their numbers in the blue text (according to the example presented in this section). It should be noted that to refer to figures and diagrams in the text, avoid writing the word number after them and simply insert the number of that figure or diagram mathematically with a space after it (for example, figure number (1) [incorrect]); Figure (1) [Correct]) The titles of the figures and diagrams are arranged below them and as follows (according to Table 2):
Figure (1): measured index
Tables
All the requirements mentioned for figures and diagrams are always applicable for tables as well. It should be noted that the titles of the tables are inserted above them.
Title
The title of the article should be short and meaningful (maximum 12 words). Considering that the titles of articles are often considered in information retrieval devices, they should not contain abbreviations, formulas or unknown words. It is recommended that the name of the region or area under study should not be the main element of the title, because the cooperative and agriculture quarterly aims to publish evidence that will help the development of the cooperative sector at the macro level.
Abstract (structured and detailed)
The abstract is separate from the text of the article and must be presented independently; Therefore, referencing and using abbreviations are not allowed in it. Authors should write an abstract of 250 words in Persian and English. Also, by expanding the English abstract, prepare an expanded abstract between 650 and 1000 words. The English abstract should be accurate and free of any grammatical and dictation mistakes. It should be noted that after the review, the corrections in the Persian abstract by the authors should be exactly reflected in the English abstract as well. All three abstracts (short Persian abstract and its English equivalent and extended English abstract) are structured and consist of the following sections:
Background and Purpose
(Context refers to the background and issues and problems related to the topic, which justify the research and provide the necessary platform for stating the purpose. After explaining the context, the purpose of the research is clearly stated in the form of a short sentence).
Methodology/approach
 (In this section, a brief description of the sampling technique(s), respondents/participants, methods of measuring variables and data collection, as well as the methods or approaches used for data analysis are given.
Findings and conclusions
(This section should include several of the key findings of the research. In this section, quantitative explanations (numerical values) of the results should be avoided as much as possible. Also, it is necessary to combine the key findings and interpret and explain them based on speculation in a short sentence in the form the conclusion of the research should be presented).
Originality/innovation
In this section, the innovative and unique aspects of the research (results) and even if possible its applications for the field of science (theory and methodology) and practice (managers and policy makers) are expressed. If the optional parts mentioned below are included in the structure of the abstract, it is not necessary to mention the research applications under originality/innovation.
In addition to the above mandatory sections, the abstract can also include the following optional sections:

Operational applications
 (This section includes research applications in the field of practice (managers and policy makers)).
Social applications
 (This section includes research applications at the level of specific communities or the general public).
The relevant sections of the English abstract are as follows (titles in blue are optional):
Context and purpose.
Methodology/approach.
Findings and conclusions.
Originality.
Research limitations/implications.
Practical implications.
Social implications.
Keywords It is necessary to present a maximum of 6 keywords immediately after the abstract. These words are used for indexing purposes; Therefore, it is better to be careful in choosing them so that the desired article can be retrieved more easily in the search results. The key words are not necessarily the same words used in the title of the research; Rather, they are often derived from the findings and conclusions of the study.
Note: Avoid choosing the name of the province, the study area, and in some cases the data analysis method as keywords.
Introduction
In the introduction section, a general overview of the research topic should be presented; Therefore, it is necessary for the authors to start from a general point of view and gradually address the main focus of their article and highlight it. In this section, it should be explained by presenting documents that the issue under investigation is important. For this purpose, it is possible to consider the existence of one or more problems, challenges or serious issues by providing evidence of the text. At the end of the introduction section, the authors should show the gap of the subject by referring to the general flow of domestic and foreign studies of the last 10 years (this is not a literature review or presentation of the background of the research), and while stating the purpose of the research, the contribution of their study to the literature of the subject and the field of practice. explain; Therefore, at the end of the introduction section, the originality/innovation of the study should be clearly felt.
Note: In the preparation of the introduction, it is necessary to focus on a general and inclusive perspective and to form the focus of the topics in relation to the major challenges and gaps of the subject; Therefore, proposing problems and issues related to the study area, the subjects under investigation and the statistical population in the form of a research problem or the necessity of doing it is not allowed in any way. Articles that have written the introduction section in a case-by-case manner or have left traces of their results in this section, are not considered in this quarterly.

Theoretical foundations and research background
The background of the research is a main title in the articles, which can be defined under other titles depending on the topic and procedures of the research. In this section, theories, perspectives, models, patterns and empirical studies are presented and discussed. In exploratory quantitative studies as well as qualitative studies, presenting this section will be optional, provided that sufficient theoretical and experimental discussions are presented in the introduction section. In confirmatory studies (hypothesis testing), it is necessary to determine each concept or variable as a sub-heading in this section, and while defining it precisely (by inserting a reference), a theoretical discussion regarding the relationships between concepts or variables should be raised, and finally, by explaining the studies Relevant empirical research hypotheses are formulated and presented. In this sense, before presenting any hypothesis, the necessary grounds and justifications should be provided for it, in such a way that the innovative side of the hypothesis is fully evident. At the end of this section, it can be useful to present the hypotheses in the form of a conceptual or theoretical model (it is necessary to specify each hypothesis in the model).
research methodology
Research methodology is one of the important parts of the article that the authors can present in the form of a single text or in the form of separate subtitles. For a better understanding, it is recommended to present this section in the form of separate subheadings including "research design", "measurement of variables", "sampling and data collection", "data analysis process". In qualitative studies, these subtitles can be determined as follows: "Research design", "Participants and data collection", "Validation" and "Data analysis process".
Note: It is necessary to write this section by referring to methodological scientific sources and based on the implementation process of the research and avoid generalizing or writing in the way of manuals or educational books.

findings
In this section, research findings are presented in the form of statistics, figures, quotes and other required quantitative and qualitative information. It is recommended to use tables, figures and charts to display information and data as much as possible. "Findings" is considered a main title in all articles, and authors can use different subtitles in this section according to the topic and objectives of the research. It should be noted that if "discussion" is combined with "findings", the title of this part of the article will be changed to "findings and discussion" and it is necessary for the authors to link the results of each part of their work with previous literature and with wise speculation, Explain your results.
Note 1: Authors should provide accurate findings based on statistics and figures in accordance with each research goal and use appropriate scientific literature (for example, statistical literature in quantitative research) in writing the findings.
Note 2: As long as the authors use tables, figures or graphs to display research information and data, it is necessary to interpret this information in the textual explanations and avoid repeating it.

Discussion and conclusion
"Discussion and conclusion" is the main title of all the articles of the cooperative and agriculture quarterly magazine, and if the authors make their desired discussion in the findings section, the title of this section is "results".

Discussion and conclusion
"Discussion and Conclusion" is the main title of all the articles of the Cooperative and Agriculture Quarterly, and if the authors make their desired discussion in the findings section, the title of this section will be changed to "Conclusion". Authors are strongly advised to highlight their research achievements by specifying one or more of the subheadings of "Practical Applications of Research", "Theoretical Applications of Research", "Applicable Suggestions" and "Limitations of Research and Future Directions" in the "Discussion and Conclusion" section. (These titles are described below).

In the process of compiling the conclusion section, first the problem and the purpose of the research should be explained in two or more short sentences, and if the "discussion" is separate from the findings and assigned to this section, the authors should focus on each finding and its corresponding purpose, a coherent discussion. , present clearly and scientifically and link the results of their work with previous theoretical and experimental literature. It should be noted that simply explaining the alignment or non-alignment of the research findings with the previous literature is not enough and the authors should explain and highlight the originality of the work, the new and unique findings of their study. In the following, it is necessary to specify the contribution of the research in the subject literature as well as how to achieve each contribution on a case-by-case basis and completely transparently. The authors can present the contribution of the research at their own discretion before the discussion and then present the desired discussion.
"Practical applications of research" and "theoretical applications of research" are two important axes in the conclusion section, which are presented at the discretion of the authors in the form of separate subtitles in the conclusion section or in the form of text combined with the conclusion. The practical applications of the research (for managers and policy makers) are focused on the issue of what achievements the research will bring to the field of practice. What insight, understanding, and knowledge has it provided for managers and policy makers, and through what process has this been achieved in the research (meaning a new process that is only specific to the authors' research work)?
The theoretical applications of the research (for the subject literature) also indicate what the research has achieved for the field of science and what new insight or knowledge has it created? What new and innovative research process has this new knowledge or insight been achieved?
It should be noted that research applications (Implications) are completely different from research proposals (Recommendations) and authors should differentiate between these two issues. After explaining the applications of the research, the authors may provide practical suggestions based on the research findings, according to their insight and understanding of the research experiences.
Finally, the authors should present the limitations of their research clearly and away from bias and offer suggestions for future researchers in their research axis and outline future study directions. It is a necessity to state the limitations of the research for the articles that consider the cooperative and agriculture quarterly. The limitations of the research include a set of elements that reduce the generalizability of the findings and the research findings should be interpreted based on these limitations.
Note 1: Repeating the findings in the conclusion section and neglecting to formulate an in-depth conclusion that depicts the innovation/originality of the research will result in the rejection of the article by the editor in the early stages of evaluation.
Note 2: Things like lack of access to accurate data, non-participation of respondents, time-consuming data collection, cost-effectiveness of research, etc. indicate the problems facing the research process and researchers and have nothing to do with research limitations; Therefore, mention such cases in the form of limitations of the research separately. For example, two of the limitations of the research that measured the effects of the coronavirus epidemic on the performance of cooperatives in Tehran province may be expressed in this way: 1) Because the effects of the coronavirus depend on some characteristics such as the state of the infrastructure, the population and the availability of health indicators in The different service sectors of different provinces are different, it seems that the results of this research can be cautiously generalized for the cooperative sector in some provinces of the country, which have less structural and functional similarity to Tehran province; and 2) since in this study, mostly cooperative companies with average performance and less than that have been considered, it seems that the obtained results have limited application for cooperatives with strong performance. In this way, future studies can consider the effects of the coronavirus in a comparative view based on the performance level and model the effect of important indicators in this field.
Contribution of authors
The participation of the authors should be in different parts of the research, including "conceptualization", "methodology and software", "data and information collection", "data and information analysis", "review and monitoring", "writing, revision and editing", "supervision and supervision". ", "project management" and "financing". This section is presented in the form of a separate title at the end of the article (after the conclusion). For example, for an article with two authors, the contribution of the authors is formulated as follows:
Ali Asadi: (conceptualization, methodology and software, data and information collection, review and monitoring, writing, revision and editing, project management and financing); Khalil Kalantari: (conceptualization, methodology and software, data and information analysis, supervision and supervision and financing.
Acknowledgments
This section is optional and the authors can express their thanks and gratitude to all the curators of the research, including sponsoring organizations, supporting researchers, participants (including respondents and other activists) in a maximum of two sentences.
No conflict of interest
 During the declaration of non-conflict of interest by the authors, the existence of personal and economic relationship between the authors, editors and even the editors of the journals, which can unfairly influence the decision to print and publish the articles, is violated; Therefore, the non-conflict of interests of the authors should be clearly stated. For this purpose, it is necessary for the authors to upload their non-conflict of interest form in a separate file at the time of sending the main file of the article in the system.

Appendices
Appendices contain content that is separated from the main body of the article and is presented as a separate section at the end of the article. This content can include explanations, formulas, figures, questionnaires or any other material that the authors provide to explain more about the main structure of the article. Attachments should be numbered in the form of numbers 1, 2, 3, etc.
References All the sources used in the articles must be written in English; Therefore, it is necessary to translate Persian articles into English and include the word In Persian at the end of the list of sources (to make it clear that the original article is written in Persian). In the text of the articles, all sources are expressed in English; Except in cases where the source is at the beginning of the sentence. In such a case, the names of the authors are inserted in Farsi, and the English equivalent and the year are written in parentheses in front of it (for example, Asadi et al., 2021 believe that....)
Before submitting the article to the quarterly, make sure that every source used in the text of the article is also in the reference list (at the end of the article) and vice versa; Therefore, it is necessary to set up all the sources used in the articles using one of EndNote or Mendeley software. It should be noted that after obtaining the output from the above software, the link of each reference in the text must be established with the corresponding reference at the end of the article; So that by clicking on any text reference, you can directly access its detailed format at the end of the article. It should be noted that the references in the text should be highlighted in blue.
Note 1: Articles whose references have been set manually (without using software) will be returned to the corresponding author.
 References to unpublished sources or colloquial speech in articles are not recommended, and if necessary, they should be presented in a scientific and specific format in the reference list. Referencing in the Cooperative and Agriculture Quarterly is based on the latest version of the APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines and must be done using the aforementioned software (so that each source specified in the text is linked to its corresponding source in the list of sources (at the end of the article). be). Citation of ULR and/or DOI is necessary for references listed at the end of the article. In general, some citation practices for articles, books, and other sources are presented below. Authors can refer to the APA style book to learn how to refer to other sources.
Note 2: Regarding the articles and books that three to five authors contributed to their creation, for the first reference in the text, the names of all authors are mentioned, and in subsequent times, only the name of the first author along with et al., and then the year of publication is inserted. It is possible (note the examples in the table below) that this is changing in the new editions of the APA style book, and authors are obliged to follow the principles contained in the latest version of this style book.
Note 3: When mapping sources, software must be used, and after the work is finished, all sources must be checked in terms of the order of the components (names of authors, year, title, name of the journal, number, pages, etc.) and also the insertion of punctuation marks (comma). , point, etc.) to be controlled.
 
Inline type in resource list
Articles with up to three authors
(Lerman & Parliament, 1991) Lerman, Z., & Parliament, C. (1991). Size and industry effects in the performance of agricultural cooperatives. Agricultural Economics, 6(1), 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-5150(91)90013-B.
Articles with three to five authors in the first reference
    (Mahazril'Aini, Hafizah, & Zuraini, 2012) Mahazril'Aini, Y., Hafizah, H. A. K., & Zuraini, Y. (2012). Factors affecting cooperatives' performance in relation to strategic planning and members' participation. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 65, 100–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.098
Articles with three to five authors in the second citation and more
 (Mahazril'Aini et al., 2012)
Articles with six or more than six authors
 (Wagner et al., 2014) Wagner, C., Mannion, R., Hammer, A., Groene, O., Arah, O. A., Dersarkissian, M., & Suñol, R. (2014). The associations between organizational culture, organizational structure and quality management in European hospitals. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 26(suppl_1), 74–80. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzu027.
Accepted article in progress
 (Vasquez, Madrid, & Niven, in press) Vasquez, C. A., Madrid, H. P., & Niven, K. Leader interpersonal emotion regulation motives, group leader-member exchange, and leader effectiveness in work groups. Journal of Organizational Behavior.

book (the rule of the number of authors related to articles also applies to books).
 (Wright, 2014) Wright, C. (2014). Worker cooperatives and revolution: History and possibilities in the United States. BookLocker.
 
A chapter of the book
 (Kim, Cohen, & Netessine, 2017) Kim, S. H., Cohen, M. A., & Netessine, S. (2017). Reliability or Inventory? An Analysis of Performance-Based Contracts for Product Support Services. In Handbook of information excha

nge in supply chain management (pp. 65–88). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32441-8.
 
Conference paper
  (Schotanus, 2005) Schotanus, F. (2005). Cooperative purchasing within the United Nations. In 14th Annual IPSERA Conference 2005 (pp. 961–973). Researches in Purchasing and Supply Management.
 
website
  (FAO, 2021) FAO. (2021). Cooperatives and Producer Organizations. Retrieved from https://www.fao.org/partnerships/cooperatives/en/
 
Dissertation or treatise
  (Lavaei Adaryani, 2019) Lavaei Adaryani, R. (2019). Designing a model of livestock production cooperatives networking towards reorganizing the supply chain of major livestock products. University of Tehran. Retrieved from http://utdlib.ut.ac.ir/Search/DocumentDetails/170352?HighlightWords